The present invention relates to an aneurysm seal and to a method for sealing an aneurysm.
Cerebral aneurysms are formed by an out-pouching of normal cerebral vasculature at a number of sites. The sites tend to be areas of mechanical stress concentration. Fluid flow appears to be a likely initiating cause for the formation of these aneurysms. The nature of an underlying difference in vascular wall structure in people who develop an aneurysm at a stress concentration site, also infers a genetic root cause for this disease.
Treatment options presently available for cerebral aneurysms include surgical treatment and interventional treatment. Surgical treatment has been a longheld standard of care for the treatment of aneurysms. Surgical treatment involves a long and delicate operative procedure that has significant risks and a long period of post-operative rehabilitation and critical care.
Interventional treatment has included a use of neuro-interventional devices such as the Gugliema detachable coils (GDC). The use of these types of interventional devices has not entirely replaced surgery because of a number of technical details, as well as a belief among physicians that this type of treatment is not curative for the long term. The treatment is not believed to be curative because a placement of platinum coils within an aneurysm provides protection from fluid stress concentration, but does not allow for healing of the aneurysmal opening. Surgical procedures do allow for endolithial cell closure of the aneurysm and thus, ultimately, a cure for the disease.
There is then a need for a minimally invasive interventional device for the treatment of aneurysm that encourages or provides a closure or growth across the neck of the aneurysm.